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[40k] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Keeping it Real pt.2

By Lowest of Men

Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

Why is the column late today? Assume it’s a go-slow in protest at elves not being legal yet. Yeah let’s go with that.

  • Geekfest – Winter War Zone – Warhammer 40K GT
  • Dearg Doom II: The Redder, The Deader
  • CaptainCon 40K Event Hosted by Away Game
  • Battle for the Bend II 40k GT
  • Cross-Swords PAW 2025

And these on Friday:

  • UTC Invitational Finals
  • OPEN TALAVERA 2025
  • Winter Ruin II
  • Dicehammer Open 40k GT VIII
  • Waaghmaster III

Geekfest – Winter War Zone – Warhammer 40K GT

57-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Shearwater, NS, CA on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Brandon Vallee – Dark Angels (Company of Hunters) – 1st Place

Credit; Greg Chiasson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Company of Hunters Bike Spam

Thoughts

Ok- an extremely cool break through for the Ravenwing here! Loads of Black Knights, loads of Outriders, and supporting scoring. This list is very speedy indeed, and throws out deceptively durable mounted profiles in a meta of vehicle and infantry extremes, which isn’t to be sniffed at at all! Hellblasters give you your real hard-target removal as the Darkshroud keeps everything alive that little bit longer. Really cool list, very well done on the event win!

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Stefan Samson – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Chonky Eightbound, Angron and a Forgefiend with no Invocatus!
  • 3rd – Blair Macdonald – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Khorne heavy incursion with the obligatory Great Unclean One.
  • 4th – Christopher Burgart – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): A Cerastus, a Rampager, and plenty of War Dogs.
  • 5th – Adam MacLeod – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Old school Bullgryn / Leman Russ guard.
  • 6th – Nate Quig – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): Double Daemonette / Epitome for extra wound pass off in Slaanesh!
  • 7th – Keenan Elliot – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Invasion Fleet with a Norn and a Zoan brick.
  • 8th – Connor Campbell – Slaanesh (Legion of Excess): Double Keeper and Shalaxi in Slaanesh.
  • 9th – Justin White – Space Marines (Astartes): Gladius Ultramarines with Gulliman.
  • 10th – Matthew Reeson – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Double Wraith brick with a whole heap of characters.

Dearg Doom II: The Redder, The Deader

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cork, CO, Ireland on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tom Maher – Chaos Space Marines (Creations of Bile) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Creations of Bile Bricks

Thoughts

An event win for chonky Creations of Bile here, who pack in the Possessed and get ready to roll. These lists are capable of tremendous go – turns, as the mid board is then anchored by Rhinos and War Dogs for OC and actions. The Possessed go up to 11 with the reroll wounds stratagem as required but otherwise pin things in place. Bile was definitely one of the coolest Grotmas detachments, so I am delighted to see it claim a win here. Well done!

Colin Power – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Svbfloorvg

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Fiends with Benefits

Thoughts

Slaanesh claims another top placing, as the brutal application of Fiends with rerolls and big old Keepers proves too much for most to manage. The Epitome / Daemonette combo let’s you pass off wounds very effectively, and the Chariots are great supporting buffing and screening pieces. Slaanesh appears to be the games strongest army at this moment in time, very well done to Colin on demonstrating this with aplomb.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 3rd – Peter Ghelfi – Dark Angels (Company of Hunters): Very cool CoH Dark Angels with lots of Inner Circle Companions and Black Knights.
  • 4th – Conor Crowley – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre): Beautiful symmetrical Ret Cadre with pairs of Suits, Ghostkeel, Riptides and Hammerheads.
  • 5th – Charles Gould – Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike): Bridgehead Guard with an absolute tonne of bodies.
  • 6th – Mike Tangney – Drukhari (Reaper’s Wager): Scourge, Talos and Incubi in Reaper’s Wager.
  • 7th – Peter Scott – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): War Dogs with some Daemons.
  • 8th – Michael Mc Carthy – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Massed Sanguinary Guard, love to see it.
  • 9th – Cian Hurley – Tyranids (Warrior Bioform Onslaught): Absolute masses of Termagants and Warriors in the Bioform detachment!

CaptainCon 40K Event Hosted by Away Games

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Warwick, RI, United States on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Alex Ing – Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal) – 1st Place

Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Starshatter Goodstuff

Thoughts

Starshatter shakes off some nerfs to claim a first place regardless! Three Doomsday Arks and the Silent King remains very potent indeed. I think Starshatter has to duck and weave a little on the match up fronts but when it gets to do it’s thing it can reasonable out-shoot an awful lot of the field. Really well done on the top placing.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Tony Phillips – Space Marines (Astartes) (Gladius Task Force): Ultramarines Gladius with some Desolators.
  • 3rd – Benjamin Rubenstein – T’au Empire (Auxiliary Cadre): An absolute truckload of Broadsides in Auxiliary Cadre.
  • 4th – Samuel Pope – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Full all-in Vanguard Onslaught with plenty of Raveners.
  • 5th – Drew Salzborn – T’au Empire (Kroot Hunting Pack) : Massed Kroot with a smattering of supporting shooting.
  • 6th – Gil Fuhr – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Triple GUO and Rotigus, you absolute legend.

Battle for the Bend II 40k GT

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in South Bend, Indiana, US on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Benjamin Frederiksen – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Chapter Master Arcus Pluvius of the Rainbow Warriors armed with the gauntlets Rainbows Duplex
Rainbow Warriors Chapter Master Arcus Pluvius by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ultramarines Goodstuff

Thoughts

Gulliman’s finest are well poised to shoot their way out of most problems in the game right now thanks to the awesome power of new Oaths. This list goes deep on chunky tanks to take advantage of this, with the Primarch and Calgar on hand to counter-punch as required. Very effective at what it does and a stand out at the moment for one of the best armies in the game! I really like the Incursor plug in – these just help Marines to hit hard and true right now and are approaching must have. Well done on the event win.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Kevin Leonard – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): Fiend-heavy double Keeper Legion.
  • 3rd – Jordan Nach – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): mechanised Montka with breacherfish and other hulls.
  • 4th – Jeff Grogan – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): double Land Fortress and a big Hearthguard brick, plus lots of cheap bord control from Yaegirs and bikes.
  • 5th – Luke Bumpus – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): All-rounder shield host with a solid mix of tanks, infantry and bikes.

Cross-Swords PAW 2025

27-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Missions right there in BCP once more. Yes. Yes!

Linchpin – Raise Banners – Dawn of War

Tom Godfrey – Orks (War Horde)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Cameron Giles – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A showdown that pitches two of the resurgent armies in the game against one another! Orks are enjoying being able to call Waaagh at a moment of their choosing, and War Horde is a big beneficiary. New units like the Break Boyz plug in especially well here and cause all sorts of mischief. The list is a little bit monophase, which will cause it some troubles here facing up against new Custodes. The stand-back-up again phenomenon is real here, and the Orks are going to have to commit forces just to knock the Ven Dreads over for the first time. This gives the Custodes quite a lot of momentum, and they will cull Ork bodies outside the Waagh.

What the Green Tide do have going for them is absolute buckets of units and OC. I can see this being hard fought as the Orks use their weight of bodies to leg up on secondaries and try to drown primary, but if they don’t put enough of the Golden army away on the go-turn it will be hard for them to keep up with the attrition. First / second turn probably has a big say in who grinds to victory at the end. Ultimately the Custodes took it!

Result

Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead) Victory – 86 – 79

Cameron Giles – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead) – 1st Place

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Chonky Custodes

Thoughts

Solar Spearhead is a real pain to put away – I like this list which blends in just enough infantry based nonsense to compliment the big hulls and dreads. Eversor and Blade Champion Wardens can cause problems exactly in the spots that the other stuff sometimes struggles to reach. Feel no pain Telemon is a bane on undercommitments the world over, and the Caladius are lurking in the wings to capitalise. A fantastic build, and a great even win, well done!

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Tom Godfrey – Orks (War Horde): The War Horde list from the Showdown.
  • 3rd – George McCoulough – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Tricky Skysplinter with lots of transports and minions inside them. Also a Voidraven!!
  • 4th – George Hack – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Golden Slabs with plenty of Guard, Wardens, and Allarus.

Wrap Up

That’s it for now folks! Lots of exciting things afoot for many of the games new detachments, and a seemingly quite diverse set of winners which is always very reassuring. Get out there and enjoy whilst it lasts!!!

Lowest of Men, out.

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